Thank you to Simon Teen for the ARC of Island Creatures by Margarita Engle. All opinions are my own. 

Island Creatures is the first story I’ve read that was written in verse. It made for a unique reading experience. Because there were less words, I was able to read it quickly while still getting an interesting story. 

I think maybe I would have enjoyed it more if I understood poetry better. The formatting and the specific words chosen didn’t always make sense to me, so I felt like I was missing out on something that I should’ve known. 

What I loved about this book was reading about the animals and learning more about them. I’m a big animal lover, so this was my main reason for picking this book up. This aspect of the story did not disappoint. 

I’m not sure if it’s because of the format or length of the novel, but in many ways this story felt incomplete. By the end of the book, I felt like I didn’t know or understand the main characters well at all. I also felt like the plot was kind of all over the place without explanation of how or why things happened. 

Overall, this story was decent. I do think I would give novels written in verse another try because I didn’t mind this style of writing. Unfortunately, I don’t think this story will be very memorable for me down the road.